1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sewing and embroidering machine system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sewing and embroidering machine system capable of sequentially displaying pieces of guide information including a method of operating an embroidery system during each stitching operation.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional electronically controlled sewing and embroidering machine for home use comprises a stitching mechanism which includes a needle driven for vertical reciprocation and a looper for forming a loop in cooperation with the needle, an embroidery frame driving mechanism for moving an embroidery frame detachably holding a workpiece (cloth) in two perpendicularly intersecting directions, a pattern data storage storing pattern data of a plurality of patterns such as vehicles, flowers and animals, a display, and a control panel. When the operator manipulates the control panel to display a desired embroidery pattern on the display for pattern selection and to make the sewing machine stitch the selected embroidery pattern, the driving mechanism is controlled on the basis of the pattern data of the selected embroidery pattern. The driving mechanism and the stitching mechanism cooperate to stitch the selected embroidery pattern in a plurality of colors on the workpiece held on the embroidery frame.
During the embroidering operation using a plurality of color threads to stitch a colorful embroidery pattern, stitching information about the embroidering operations including a plurality of component color sections to be embroidered respectively with the plurality of color threads, and time necessary to embroider the component color sections of the embroidery pattern in which the embroidering operation is in progress is displayed in addition to the selected pattern on the display. Upon each completion of forming stitches in one of the component color sections of the embroidery pattern, the stitching operation is stopped and the information displayed on the display is changed to display information about operations for forming stitches in the next component color section of the embroidery pattern. This necessitates the operator to watch the information displayed on the display continually, to check the pattern being stitched, and to confirm that the thread is not broken, i.e., to confirm that the stitching operation is not interrupted.
When embroidering a component color section of an embroidery pattern selected from the plurality of component color sections of the embroidery patterns, the stitching operation is stopped and information displayed on the display changes each time the stitching operation for embroidering the component color section pattern is completed. However, as long as the stitching operation for embroidering the same component color section pattern continues, substantially the same information is displayed continuously on the display for a long period, e.g., ten or fifteen minutes, thus boring the operator.